Razorbeak Squad find themselves strapped into their Osprey pattern Valkyrie the The Black Feather as it bounces around from turbulence as the ship passes into atmosphere. For one month Razorbeak had been in the warp on a supply vessel full of Death Korps troops and Cadian Mechanized infantry. The Death Korps stayed mostly to themselves, but a few of the Cadians were nice enough to talk to Razorbeak. Scuttlebutt has it that Teradore VI is a slog of a campaign. Some main hive city is apparently holding out. Located in the middle of some mountain range, the Hive, the mountain range, and even the foothills around the mountains have been turned into one giant fortress. Death Korps job is to maintain the line, and the Cadians were being brought in to finally push through the first line.

”Ten minutes until we land guys and gals. Ground Control is giving me a wide flight path to avoid anti-air or some such,” says Mercedes co-pilot of The Black Feather. An older woman, but a hell of a navigator, she's made sure that the Feather is always right on drop, but as she always jokes, ”You can lead an Osprey to a jump point, but you can't make 'em land.' Mercedes more carefree attitude is in contrast to the Feather's pilot, Hendricks. Hendricks is a young and deadly serious pilot, not very keen on Mercede's attitude, but usually too focused on the controls to care. He's gotten Razorbeak into, and out of, some serious engagements, so he's earned his no fuss attitude.

Ten minutes later the Feather touches down, and the back hatch lowers allowing Razorbeak squad to disgorge. As everyone exits, they are greeted by a small mousy man, who introduces himself as Adjunct to the Imperial Military commander of this operation, but doesn't give his own name. He asks the group to follow him, and he would lead them to their quarters.

The Razorbeaks have been to enough warzones to know when the war has gone on long enough, and this is one of them. A quick warzone consists of infantry in tents and mobile command centers. A slightly more involved one might have some static fortifications of a prefab variety.

The military camp on Teradore VI contained prefab buildings for sure, but also a large number of barracks, vehicle bays, and supply centers all stick built, all erected on the spot from local materials. The base has no rhyme or reason; it is clear that this was meant to be a temporary base, but as the war ground to a halt, more long term structures were needed and built whereever there was room. The mousy man leads the squad from the landing pad to what appears to be a main thoroughfare, populated mostly with Death Korps troops, but also many civilians selling goods and services. This war has definitely gone on too long if there is a functioning civilian economy.

The group is lead to a standard Imperial Fortified Prefab Pillbox, which seems to have had the slits normally reserved for firing bricked over. The man indicates that this pillbox has been converted into living quarters. That there are enough bunks for the squad, a small room in back for meeting, and a latrine and shower unit around back reserved just for the squad. The man says that they are to report to the command center in two hours for a briefing, and points not to far down the main road to a standard prefab command center.

After spending a couple hours resting, or taking a shower, or checking gear, Razorbeak squad, along with Mercedes and Hendricks, head to the command center where they are immediately led into the war room. Only three people are present. Two appear to be Cadians. One is an older gentleman with a scar down his face and Captain bars. The other is a younger man with short cut hair wearing the bars of a warzone Commander. The third is a Colonel from the Death Korps. The Kreiger appears slight of frame, so everyone assumes the Colonel is a woman.

The Commander speaks up. ”Good, I'm glad you have finally arrived. I am General Greggor. With me I have Captain Hessen of the 184 Cadian Mechanized Infantry, and major Zamora of the Death Korps. I'll give you the quick run down here, since my understanding is you haven't received proper briefing materials. Teradore VI has proven a tough nut to crack. The planetary government had planned their sucession from the Imperium for years, and took that time fortifying the world against attack. The main hive, Teradore Primus, is build into a mostly dormant volcano in the center of a massive mountain range. They spent years turning the whole mountain range into one giant fortress. They have anti-orbital void shields around Primus, and a whole bunch of anti-ship weapons nestled in the mountains pointing up, making orbital bombardment impossible.”

Greggor presses a button on the table in the center of the room and a projector comes to life behind him. He grabs a control and begins to click through a series of maps as he continues. ”We thought we'd have a decent go of it from the ground. So we landed far enough away to not be harassed by their guns, and mounted an attack towards the mountains. That is when we discovered their Iron Line. They spent that same amount of time fortifying the foot hills with hundreds of miles of trenches, pillboxes, fortifications, you name it. They also produced hundreds of artillery pieces to saturate the no man's land in front of them. We tried to take targeted air-strikes against the artillery batteries, but they also installed just as many anti-air batteries linked to a sophisticated scanner network and linked to a complex cogitator network allowing them to pluck our bombers out of the sky.”

The slide changes to an image of a rather basic looking structure on the side of what appears to be a small rock outcropping.

”Intel tells us that the anti-air batteries are reliant on this network. Better yet, they require remote uplink, and there are no redundancies. So if we could take out one of their network stations, all the anti-air in a large radius would go down. Which would mean our bombers could take out the stationary artillery unmolested, which means that our troops would actually have some luck getting close to their line so we can punch through that and hope the mountain bases are an easier nut to crack.”

Greggor stops for a second, and looks at Razorbeak Squad. ”Your mission would be straight forward, but not easy. Using that stealth dropship of yours, you'd make a high altitude flyby and drop close to the indicated relay station. It is built on a rocky foothill. It has pretty steep cliff faces except for the approach, which is a winding switchback road with at least one checkpoint. The foothill would likely be too small to land on from such a height. It wouldn't be a problem for an astartes drop pod, but none of the chapters in the sector have responded. We need you to disable the relay station. However is up to you. You can capture the station and shut it off. Plant explosives. Shoot a missile at the damned antenna for all I care. However you do it, once it is disabled, we will commence our attack. After that your dropship should be able to come back and get you and pick you up. Thor's Blood, this might be the only thing in this campaign we need you for, but if you pull it off you'll put an end to a long stalemate.”

Greggor then motions to the group if they have any questions.

Okay, first thing is first. Feel free to ask any questions you want to. This guys seems pretty straight forward and doesn't seem to be squandering your lives, so he'll likely be forthcoming.

Your logistics rating is going to be 15, not the standard 10, since you aren't green recruits. Your modifier for mission gear is going to be +20 for a total Difficulty of 35. (+10 normally, +20 for vital mission, -10 for war conditions.) I could just roll the logistics test, but I like letting the players do that.

You also have the option to try and acquire some other goods outside. Logistics modifiers are as follows: Multiple regiments. Time spent in front is less than three months. Front active for 1-5 years. War conditions are a violent Impasse.

"Because the time has come, well and truly come, for all peoples of our great country, for all citizens of our great commonwealth, for all Australians to come together and build a new future for our nation."

- Kevin Rudd

Jayne salutes the General before speaking up. She's slightly nervous, having not been in the same room as this many senior officers prior to a drop, but will throw herself on the social grenade of stupid questions for her team anyway

"Lord General, Sir! With permission, what is the timetable for the general attack? If our planned extraction is compromised we may need to rendezvous with Imperial forces on the ground. Additionally, sir, why was this network station chosen as the target? Sir."

She salutes again and glances at the rest of the team to see if she played that right.

leaving logistics roll to the sergeant, but I recommend we look at acquiring some survival suits

Linara starts by scouting out a perimeter around the bunker and searching for any hidden passages, listening devices, bombs or other shenanigans. The better part of an hour is spent securing the home bunker, before she feels satisfied enough to set her gear down. That's when the mental calculus starts. She has a bit more time before the mission briefing, and there was still equipment that the squad needs. She needs a medikit for sure, hopefully that won't be too difficult to get before the mission began...

The market would have been a promising place to start... if not for how terrifyingly insecure it is. Instead, Linara opts for making the rounds at the Munitorum Depot, examining the equipment and trying to strike a sight in her elite Osprey duds. She introduces herself to the Supply Sergeant, as well. It always pays for the person with the dataslate to know your name, and hopefully your reputation.

By the time the briefing time was near Linara thinks she has a good lead on a few acquisitions, but puts that aside in her mind. The brass wants to talk at them, and that always takes priority. She salutes with everyone else when they approach the general, and stands at attention during the briefing. It seems a logical enough plan, as far as these sorts of suicide missions went, but she wasn't keen on having to slide up a defended mountain. That would take time...

She gives a small smirk when the baby-bird chirps up. Plan for success, prepare for failure. A good head on that one's shoulders. She does note the path and apparent vehicle storage area, and leans over to Abe and Josephina, asking softly "Think you could drive us down off that deathtrap in whatever is in that garage?"

LaterI wanted to do these rolls for Commerce before the logistics rolls

When the briefing was over Linara accompanies Sergeant Tucker to the Munitorum Depot. While there, she makes a point to state that the mission they were embarking on were direct orders from the Lord General himself, deemed vital to the success of the entire campaign. She tries to leverage the in-person briefing from the top commander they had just arrived from along with the Osprey reputation to try and make sure that their equipment was handed over with no issues. And maybe the Supply Sergeant would slip something else along to make sure they were successful...

Going to make a commerce roll to give our Sarge a bonus on the mission gear roll. This is a Commerce test opposed by Commerce or Willpower from whoever is in charge of giving us our Mission Assignment gear I would assume .
Commerce to make Mission Gear logistics test easier (Opposed, scored 4 degrees of success)Commerce (Mission Gear) (TN 41): 1d10064 Degrees of Success

I also rolled a commerce/acquisition pair for a medikit, which succeeds in the end I think.

The question isn't unwarranted, but it's not easy to ask. Anything being kept in the motor pool in a place like this isn't likely to be something that plays to the unit's strength. You're thinking loud and slow, exactly the opposite of how the Ospreys like to operate.

"Depends on what's in there, but yeah, I can do it. Trained on just about everything until I was combat rated. I'd rather fly out, but we'll take what we can get, right?"

The whole thing is about par for the course considering the usual assignments sent their way, but on the other hand it's something Josephina's very good at. Sneak in, set up a demo charge or three, and back out before anyone's the wiser. Hell, if they can cause a distraction on the other end of the station to get everyone looking the other way... Yeah, that's got some possibilities to it. She'll definitely have to bring it up once they get to the area and start to scout it out. No sense in bringing it up just yet, at least not until they've seen the layout of the station to get an idea of what's in there. In the meantime, perhaps she can do some good in the munitorum depot.

A surgical strike to break an untenable situation? By the God-Emperor, someone higher up the chain had actually assigned a specialist regiment to an appropriate mission. It was all he could do not to quote from the official Ecclesiarchical Declaration of Miracles right on the spot. But since enlisted officers (especially the ones not familiar with Hammond) tended to frown on his spontaneous recitations, he resists.

Hammond smiles warmly at Jayne's enthusiasm and adds, "Yes, and do we have any estimates of enemy presence in and around the area? I'd like to know if we're going to need to fight a holding action while we wait for our evac."

He couldn't have been more confident that Razorbeak squad could accomplish this mission. That confidence was only slightly dampened by the state of the base, which seemed to be running critically low on a wide variety of items. After 30 minutes of shopping around, he was starting to wonder what they did have here.

As Salvus files in to the command centre, it's all he can do to stand to attention and salute. As he's grown older, he's found that the bizarre dreams common to Warp-travel have grown worse for him; nowadays he barely sleeps at all in transit, and a short 2-hour nap has done very little to help. Inwardly, he dreams of nursing himself to sleep in his bunk with a bottle of the local amasec, but digs his nails into his palms and concentrates on the briefing. There'll be time for sleep before the mission.

When Jayne makes her point, Salvius briefly nods in her direction. Planning for the mission going wrong is rarely a waste of time. It's also good, of course, that the new blood doesn't think being an Osprey makes her the Emperor's invincible right hand.

As the briefing begins to wind down, Salvus forces himself awake again, and addresses the commander:"These fortifications are impressive, I'm sure, but I'm more curious about what they've got inside. What sort of men do they have guarding the station? Anything at all - their doctrine, equipment, anything that makes them stand out might help us in the field."

For all that his salute was crisp and his uniform straight, Abe speaks casually when the briefing concludes. "Just the one antenna? I think I've got enough on me now to take it out, but more won't hurt. Shouldn't even have to go inside if we do it right. Throne, if we can hit the roof on landing we could be out in minutes." Scratching his MIU plug, he adds, "Depends on how the approach goes, but either way we'll get the job done either way. I understand bomber follow-up precludes a night insertion, sir?"

General Greggor listens to the questions asked by the Ospreys patiently, and then answers them in turn. "Ah yes, enemy forces and composition. I have to remember you are brand new to this theatre of war. The Teradore forces outnumber us by quite a bit. The total number you'd be dealing with in that particular area of operations would be regiment sized, though the forces at the comm array would be much smaller than that; we think at best platoon sized. The Teradore traitors are lightly armored, typically just flak vests and helmets, though they are armed rather well.
The world was a Manufacturing center before they went traitor, especially production of arms and ammunition. Originally they were geared toward stubber and autocannon production for vehicle pintle mounts. So they still have a large number of those in their service. They arm their standard troops with autoguns. However, they knew what they were up against, so they also equipped their standard troops with high density full metal jacketed rounds, for better penetration than the standard autogun round. So if for some reason you'd have to fight a holding action for evac, hope it isn't long, because you'll have a hornet's nest coming down on you. The mission should be quick enough that your Valkyrie can stay on station at high altitude and get down quick enough."

"Don't forget they're loving twists," says the Krieger commander, her softer voice verifying that it is indeed a woman under all the siege gear.

"Ah yes, also worth mentioning," says Greggor in agreement. "The planet has a high population of mutants. Extra arms, scales, thick hides, even ogryn. No one used to care when they were just doing all the dangerous jobs no one wanted, but when the Teradore government rebelled, they mobilized the damned twists, using them for their specialties. Ogryn are used as shock troops; twists with three arms are given heavy weapons since they can brace them better, even been reports of some with wings being used as shock troops."

Captain Hessen speaks, "Vehicles are based off the standard Chimera body type. So Chimera's hellhounds, that sort of thing. They lack heavy armor, thank the Throne; though what I wouldn't give for an armored regiment to roll over 'em. I can also answer the question about why this station for the General. That's because the area of the front covered by that station will be the easiest for my Mechanized Infantry to attack. Flat ground with bunkers mostly armed with anti-infantry weapons."

The General nods at the Captain before continuing. "Yes. There are easier to attack relay stations, but they cover parts of the front that would be harder to attack I am afraid. Your insertion will be at night. Our bombers are good enough to hit things at night. Plus these artillery are stationary bases, so we've got the positions more than ready. We got electro-vox units monitoring the relay for outgoing signals. When we detect none are transmitting, then we'll assume you succeeded. We will begin our air and ground attack at the same time. You leave at one a.m. so you've got about seven hours to rest up and prepare. Emperor Guide you."

With the briefing over, the Squad rendezvous with Hendricks and Mercedes at the Feather. Mercedes is standing over a crate in the back of the dropship while leaning on a barrel. She cracks open the box and inside are 12 grapnel and lines, should work good if the group decides to climb the sheer foothill the station is on. Mercedes then turns around the barrel so the label is facing outwards.

Back at the pillbox turned barracks, Mercedes gathers the group around a small table with a map. "Okay, so we got a couple landing zones I see from these maps we have. First, is the safe drop. That's about 500 meters from the switchbacks leading up the side of the ridge. Large clearing with more than enough room to land and group up. Perfect if you want the fast route up the trail and through the guard posts. Second option is a small clearing North of the station. Short jog to the cliff face, so if you want to use those grapnel and lines, that would work. Just, thick forest if you get split up. Last option is the suicide option, trying to land onto the facility. Hard as hell, but a time saver. Just let me know which you want so I can properly give you the jump light."

First, if you had any other questions for the briefing, ask them.

Second, take time to make last minute preparations if the briefing has you wanting to change anything.

Lastly, pick your drop zone. The rules are pretty light on drop troop rules other than if you pass the operate test you fall fine. I want to introduce an element of scattering into the game. So here is how it will work:

Each mission you will be given three landing choices, the safe, medium, and dangerous locations. Each will be a risk-reward thing.

The easy jump has no scatter risk. You roll the usual +20 Operate Aeronautica test (+40 if you have drop trooper). If you pass you make target. If you fail you still make target, but also suffer fall damage.

The medium jump is a +0 Operate Aeronautica test (+20 with drop trooper). If you fail you will take fall damage, and also scatter away by 500 meters per Degree of Failure in random direction.

Hard jump is a -20 Operate Aeronautica test (+0 with drop trooper). Failure is the same as for medium above.

No charges. That's gonna make things a pain in the rear end. Not even the good kind of acid they could use to destroy materiel. She supposed they could have the airship fly over any pursuing enemies and pour the stuff on them, but that'd just be more risk than it's worth. Maybe they could trade it to the Cadians for something before the left on mission. Surely they could use their tracks cleaned, in all euphemistic senses of the word.

"Okay, this sucks, but we've done more with less, right? Anyway, what's our thoughts on the drops? The clearing probably makes the most sense. Close but not right up in their faces. We can keep surprise on our side for that much longer."

Voting for option 2 for the drop. Also, suggesting someone make a Commerce check to do a little off-the-books trading for something that goes boom.

"Because the time has come, well and truly come, for all peoples of our great country, for all citizens of our great commonwealth, for all Australians to come together and build a new future for our nation."

- Kevin Rudd

Jayne

The mention of three armed mutants has Jayne on edge, but surely this warfront has been going on long enough that any xenos influence would have been revealed. The decision of the Munitorium to not provide half their mission specific gear is baffling, but sadly not unusual.

"Hmm. No charges. I guess I have some krak bombs, if we don't need to use those on the way in. Second the clearing, I like that cover for the approach."

"I think I can handle the clearing jump. I'm less confident about scaling the cliff face..." she looks over at Josephina, "I could try to... haggle some extra charges for us. However I'm not confident that we're going to get anything..."

Patting his pack, Abe says to the others, "Relax, I never leave home without a few party favors. Actually, I think I get shot if I do. If we can't take the dish out from a distance, I can do the supports no problem. If it's all the same to the rest of you, I'd rather avoid any lethal drops on the way down."

Mercedes remains silent as the group discusses their drop strategy. She learned long ago, with Osprey squads of the past, that her role was to explain the options and do her best to get the squad on the chosen target. Unless the Feather was landing to drop off, it isn't her place to tell the Ospreys how to do their job. When the group consensus seems to head towards the second drop site not far from the cliff face, Mercedes nods and hands Sergeant Tucker a small cylindrical device the size of a grenade which he and the rest of the Ospreys recognize as a transponder beacon.

"okay, as soon as you're done and in a place where you are safe to be picked up, activate that," She points to the transponder. "Hendricks assures me he can land at the uplink facility, so if you have the place cleared out use the transponder there. Otherwise the clearing that is drop zone one at the base of the road leading up is a good position. Otherwise there isn't much near by,
too much tree cover, unless you make a clearing," she looks to Abe when she makes that last remark.

Hendricks and Mercedes fold up their maps and head off to go and prepare the Feather while the rest of the group gathers their supplies and readies themselves for the mission. The approach chosen should make for a covert insertion, assuming everyone is able to climb using the tools provided. The sheer nature of the cliff will likely make shooting the Dish with a missile hard to do until they get up there; though the group could, in theory, sneak in, plant a charge, then get out.

About six hours later (a little less) the group is strapped into the Black Feather as it takes off from the landing pad of the military base. The ride to the drop is quiet; in part because the special Osprey-Pattern Valkyrie is designed to run quiet, as well as the fact that Hendricks and Mercedes know more than to bother the troops heading into the mission. Fifteen minutes after take off Mercedes comes back into the passenger compartment, in sealed flight gear with a rebreather on. The mirrored visor of the helmet makes it impossible to read her face.

She presses one button and a red light above the back hatch turns on as the hatch begins to lower. The Ospreys all stand, clipping themselves to a safety line above their heads, while the cabin is filled with the deafening sound of air rushing in at high speeds. Everyone gets a little dizzy as the lack of oxygen from the thin upper atmosphere replaces the oxygen rich pressurized vessel. All eyes turn away from Mercedes to the light, and when it turns green the Ospreys begin their controlled fall to the ground, two at a time.

I could have posted through the whole drop, but I felt it appropriate that at least for this first one that everyone rolls their own Operate test instead of me doing it for you. Since you took the medium drop, roll a +0 Operate Aeronautica test (+20 with drop trooper). If you fail you will take fall damage, and also scatter away by 500 meters per Degree of Failure in random direction. I'll decide the scatter when I update.

As for comrades, if you make the jump so does your comrade. If you miss so do they, and their scatter will be separate than yours, so you might be separated from your comrade if you fail.

Linara checks her gravchut twice before slinging it on, and securing the rest of her kit in a drop harness. It wasn't an easy drop, but it could be worse. Oddly, her nerves disappear as soon as she takes her spot on the dropship. Other people hated the flight and the jumping, but this was the best part for Linara. No traps, no ambushes, just the pilots against their flak. All she could do to affect that balance was pray - the lack of responsibility was freeing. As the stealthship takes flight, she starts humming a tune, eventually singing quietly.

Without a word, Salvus nods to Darrien, and the two unclip from their safety lines and hurry to the hatch. To Salvus, this is one more long drop in a long sequence of them; to Darrien, this mission is an opportunity to win glory and serve the Emperor. Both of them want to reach the ground as soon as possible.

"Because the time has come, well and truly come, for all peoples of our great country, for all citizens of our great commonwealth, for all Australians to come together and build a new future for our nation."

Yorke triple checks Jayne's gear, fussing and patting and just occasionally looking proud at something properly squared away. Before the light goes green Jayne smiles inside her mask - the combat drop isn't old hat for her, and the rising adrenaline makes the rush of freezing air even more crisp and thrilling. As the mountains rise up below her she imagines herself an avenging angel of the Emperor, falling upon His foes. Then the ground rushes up and all foolish thoughts are swept away by the jolt of the grav-chute and a textbook landing in the clearing. She's on her feet and scanning her sector before she realizes it.

Abe goes through the usual paranoid munitions check that every long-lived demolitions expert practices on the flight to the drop zone, then steps up to the door when it's his turn. "Another day, another jump. C'mon Tandem, let's awshiiii-" The last is cut off when an errant gust catches him and his partner on the way out, throwing them who knows how far off the DZ.

While they wait for the light, the Sergeant lifts the receiver of Vin's vox-set and speaks calmly and quietly on the squad frequency. A little last-second literature review-slash-morale boost.

"'To look up and see the stars falling is a fear as old as mankind. What mortal gazes not upon the stars with awe, and reads not portents and omens in the movements of the cosmos? An invasion is nothing less than the will of the God-Emperor written on the sky.'-from the memoir of General Dorian Festivius, who fought for the entirety of the 286-year pacification of the Ulysses Rebellion. A verse I've always loved, and I don't think I need to explain why. Now let's show them the fate of all recidivists, Razorbeak. For the Emperor!"

The light goes green; the Sergeant snaps the receiver back into the vox, and he and Vin are out the door.

Delacroix jumps out and starts her descent. Everything goes smoothly. She and her partner Serp land without a hitch and immediately take up staging positions around the edge of the drop site to guard against any hostiles who might have spotted them on the way in. And judging by the yelling she just heard, someone else might have heard them, too.

Everyone descends in pairs heading towards the ground. From the initial jump height everything looks so small, so distant. The ground below looks like a wrinkled shirt in the dark, the details of roads, hills, and rivers all folds, while patches of trees give the shirt a plaid appearance. As the troopers descend closer and closer to the ground the details begin to sharpen, one fold is a foothill, a crease a small stream, that button a comms instillation on a rocky foothill with a patch of plaid forest to the north, and a clearing and road to the south. The group can barely make out the small clearing north of the comms station that Mercedes presented as a landing zone. It was barely 20 meters square, but Ospreys can land on the back of a moving tank if they need to.

And that is when Abe and Tandem hit the stray thermal and begin to tumble. On the ground the sky looks so flat, so empty. To the skilled jumper however, they know the skies are a sea full of invisible rivers and oceans of changing air temperatures and cross winds, a three dimensional void of traps. Abe and Tandem did nothing wrong; the sky just decided that it was not going to let everyone land safely.

All the rest of the squad can do is watch in horror as Abe and Tandem, who were at the rear, tumble to the surface behind them. Grav Chutes were not jetpacks, and gravity was much stronger than any of their desires to swim up into the sky and right their squad mates. As each member of the squad lands in the clearing, they each look back to the progress of Abe and Tandem, praying either under their breath or out loud that the two regain control of their jump. The jump was so high that it would give the two plenty of time to correct. Tandem seems to right himself first, his grav chutes sparking in the night air as he disappears behind the foot hill containing the relay station to the southwest somewhere. They see Abe drop right towards the station; obscured by the building before they see his grav chute activate.

When hurtling towards the ground at terminal velocity, spinning end over end, the fluid in your ears that keeps you balanced gets blended, and trying to figure out what end is up is a daunting task, but Abe manages to do so and he punches his grave chute, and almost immediately regrets it. While the device does lessen the free fall enough that the impact with the ground does not kill him, the sudden jerk of the chute stops him from rolling properly. The remaining velocity of the fall concentrates on his right leg as his heel impacts with the ground. The Demolitionist screams out in pain as the leg crumples and he tumbles on the ground, coming to a stop by hitting the side of some vehicle.

Abe rolls over to see a hulking Ogryn with a giant metal club and wearing a flak cloak standing over him, and next to the Ogryn is a man with a battered old PDF Flak vest and helmet pointing an autogun at Abe's face. "Hands above your head!" the man yells while punctuating his sentence with a jab of his foot in Abe's side.

Okay Wiegieman, you failed by 3 DoF, I'm using OW2 rules, so one Dof basic and two for the difference between 40 and 60, so you fall six meters, meaning you take 1d10+6 damage, not negated by armor. Rolled a 7, so that is 13 before toughness, and 10 after. You have seven wounds, so you're -3. I rolled a d 100 and came up with 72 as your "hit location" so right leg. -3 impact to the leg is you suffer id10 agility damage and go prone. Luckily, I rolled 1 one, so you take 1 agility damage and are knocked prone.

"Because the time has come, well and truly come, for all peoples of our great country, for all citizens of our great commonwealth, for all Australians to come together and build a new future for our nation."

Grimfaced, Tucker stalks forward. This was already going wrong, and in the worst possible way. Bad enough to have a pair misdrop but to have one of them land directly on the enemy you were trying to sneak up on? Infuriating. But he wasn't going to quit; if anything, he was even more determined than usual. They WERE going to succeed, and Emperor willing they'd get their men out too. He wouldn't sacrifice the squad to save two men, but he wasn't giving up on them without a fight.

"If Tandem's alive, he'll find his way to us, but we have to move fast for Abe's sake. Even if he's dead, I'll be damned if I'm letting them despoil an Emperor-fearing man's corpse, not without a fight. You all know the mission, and we all know the stakes: move out, and make them pay dearly for all of this. 'No life is wasted in the Emperor's service. Every man a martyr, every warrior a saint.' Annotated Elysian Regimental Sermons M37.000-099, unknown author."

Command Inspire vs 61: 1, so that's at least a +10 to everybody in the squad's next test, even if a natural 1 doesn't count for anything else.

Abe gives the two hapless PDF idiots a big grin and raises his hands. "Fellas, can you help me out here? I think I took a wrong turn on the way to the latrine." Still holding up his hands, he points to the medkit on his hip. "I'd really, really appreciate the use of one of the syrettes in there, if you don't mind."

Time to convince these guys to surrender or something. Also, medicae check if they'll let me if not whatever: medicae vs 82: 1d10084
Oh, Abe. Abe, Abe, Abe. I hope you guys realize how much bad luck I'm soaking up for you.

At some point the squad should have been issued those fancy flash suppressors for their carbines. Sure, it takes some of the punch out of it, but at least you can't see the bright yellow las bolts. Maybe next mission someone will remember. Well, probably not. But at least someone (Josephina) can make a note of things that would have been supremely useful.

"You want I should sneak up and get stabbin'? Abe could use a buddy right now."

Razorbeak squad splits up into its two fireteams as best as it can. Tucker, Canton, Winrie, Yorke and the two Webers split off into the first fireteam, while Lacroix, Serp, Lyhte, and Lee make up what is left of Fireteam 2. As sad as it is, Fire team two will probably be able to more effectively sneak into position without the demolitionist there as a distraction. Team one makes their way around to the eastern side of the cliff face, and team two the western, trying to take up positions to flank around the monolithic structure atop the rocky outcropping. Each of the jump troopers ready their line and grapnels shooting them up into the cliff face, the 100 meters in the grapnels just long enough to reach the top.

Meanwhile up on the cliff, Abe doesn't find his new hosts that hospitable. The Ogryn stares down at him with a vacant, toothy grin, while the dusty looking solider keeps his gun trained on the Osprey. Quickly a few more of the local troops crowd in around the scene. One comes up and quickly takes his las-carbine and mono knife from him. All of the other soldiers all appear the same; battered flack vests and helmets with old PDF insignias scratched off all carrying autoguns that look to be in better shape than their armor.

"What is going on over here!" Everyone, including Abe turn to look at the man who shouted that. He seems bigger than the rest, though it is not clear if that is because of some mutation or the larger carapace chestpiece he has on. If Abe had to guess its original source, he'd guess taken from a dead arbites. The shotgun that the man carries lends weight to that theory. he starts walking over, while all the men remain nervous.

Abe takes this chance to look around. He is lucky enough to have landed in roughly the middle of top of the outcropping. About 50 meters away is the relay station itself; a square two story structure made of rockcrete. It lacks any windows whatsoever, and only one large door on the front like the type you would see on a vehicle garage bay. Ugly, and utilitarian in a way not even Guard prefab structures are. Fifty meters in the other direction is a small guard tower as tall and bland as the building, looking over the winding switchback leading up the other side. Abe sees one guard in the tower with some large slugthrowing weapon trained inwards at the commotion instead of down the road.

The rest of the clearing in between the two has been turned into a makeshift camp for the roughly 12 men he sees around him. Some are stirring from tents nearby, likely night shift guards rudely awakened from their sleep. The area has sandbag walls littered about with empty ammo cans and discarded ration tins. One four seater auto carriage sits by the guard post.

Abe is brought back to the man with the shotgun, when is sticks it right in Abe's face. "Who are you and how many more of you are there?"

Curly and vic: you sure can make me rolls to try and sneak around once you get to the top (which will be next post) a success means that you'll be able to get into a flanking position unseen.

Wiegieman: You can either tell the truth or bluff. If he doesn't believe you, he might try more extreme methods.

Lacroix and her sidekick sink into the shadows under cover of their cloaks and synskin. Fantastic stuff, really. Makes you extra sneaky thanks to the manufactorum methods that are behind her, but she's still thankful nonetheless. Hopefully they can move fast enough to get Abe out of there quick. Good thing the medic's with her. He's probably going to need a few stitches after a mishap like that.

Linara and Ordo quickly start scaling the cliffs, hugging the rock and almost dissapearing into the cliff face as they move up to get a good line on the compound, and hopefully set up to save their comrade.

"One of our own's up on top of the station. Worst case, they've already found him and they're waiting for us, and every minute we wait makes that more likely. Time's not on our side anymore, so let's hurry."

As Salvus finishes speaking, he turns to the cliff and starts looking for the fastest route up; Darrien began climbing as soon as they reached the cliff, and is already half way up. Settling on a route, he hurries up the cliff after his nephew.

"Because the time has come, well and truly come, for all peoples of our great country, for all citizens of our great commonwealth, for all Australians to come together and build a new future for our nation."

The faint whine of the electric motor in the grappling hook sounds like a jet engine to Jayne as it pulls her up the cliff to the next checkpoint. She gets to the top, finds cover and starts to look for sentries.

The First fire team make their way up the cliffface around the west, and get into position around the corner of the large square building with no windows and one large door. Tucker in the lead, pokes his head around the corner and briefly spies Abe roughly in the middle of an encampment strewn up in the space before the com station. He sees Abe on the ground, hand on one of his legs, while and Ogryn, half a dozen folks in ramshackle gear, and some guy in Arbites armor surround him. The other dozen or so men stare at the scene before one gets the bright idea to keep an eye out and look around for anyone else, with others following suit; one intelligent enemy even focuses up in the sky.

While Abe's predicament is not good for him, it is for the rest of his Fire Teammates. With half of the enemy focused inwards looking at the fallen Osprey, and the others unsure of where to look, the two scouts and their comrades basically have free reign of the place. The camp is disorderly; the tents are set up in a random fashion, and old crates with "PDF Rations" printed on the side are stacked about. It appears that these troops have been here long term, camping out and living off of old PDF field rations. Each scout draws their mono-knife. The few guards patrolling are spread out and isolated. It would just take some patience to stick one from behind.

Okay, so Vic and Curly both passed their stealth checks (and the guards failed theirs bad enough) that you can basically get within 25 meters of the center where the commotion is. You passed so well that you can each sneak up on one guard and take them out with a stealth melee attack instantly. If you choose to do so that would essentially be your surprise round, but heym you get to think out 2 guys.

Curly did so well that if you want you can actually sneak all the way to the guy with the stubber in the tower and knife him and grab his weapon.

As for the other three, you're about 50 meters away around the corner of the building. There are some crates near by you can move to once the fighting starts, but without stealth checks you will be spotted. However, with everyone on you, the scouts could move in closer to the center if they wanted, enabling you to get to 10 meters away. If you wanted to charge the shotgun guy, or Ogryn.

So basically you have one of two options:

1. Have your awesome scouts start combat by insta gibbing two guards via handwave stealth kills. The other will notice their death's pretty quickly, so this would start combat.
2. Have the first fire team come out guns blazing, getting the attention of all the enemies, allowing your flanking team the ability to get even closer to Abe's position.

"Because the time has come, well and truly come, for all peoples of our great country, for all citizens of our great commonwealth, for all Australians to come together and build a new future for our nation."

- Kevin Rudd

yeah open up with the stealth kills - my gun has the range to provide covering fire while the rest of the team closes